"The 0 in Agent 0 represents his IQ points": Gilbert Arenas gets flamed for claiming 1992 Dream Team was worse than Shaq's 1996 team

Gilbert Arenas said that the USA Men’s Basketball Team assembled in the 1996 Olympics was the best team ever assembled. That's contrary to the popular belief that the 1992 “Dream Team,” with names like Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, and Larry Bird, is the best.

Calling the 1996 team Dream Team II, which originally was Dream Team III (since the 1994 FIBA World Cup was Dream Team II), Arenas received a heavy backlash from fans on X. Moreover, some fans also didn’t like the fact that the former NBA player was putting the 1996 ahead of the 1992 Dream Team.

Gilbert Arenas says Magic and Bird shouldn't have been on Dream Team

Gilbert Arenas is known for his nonconventional takes. Recently, on his "Gil’s Arena" podcast, the former Washington Wizards star said that the 1992 Olympic Dream Team would have been much better without Magic Johnson and Larry Bird.

According to Arenas, when the Dream Team was assembled, Bird and Johnson weren’t who they were in their prime. Bird had back issues, and Magic Johnson had contracted HIV.

“The only A team that the U.S. ever put together or tried to put together was the '92 team," Arenas said. "But you can find three or four players that like ‘no.’ With the '92 team, you got Christian Laettner, you got Magic, and you got Larry Bird that shouldn’t have been there. … But you were supposed to have Magic and Bird, but you know, by those years, they weren’t who they were."

Agent Zero said that the team should have had names like Shaquille O’Neal, Dominique Wilkins and Isiah Thomas.

While it's true that Johnson and Bird were not in their prime, leaving players of their stature wouldn’t have been fair to their legacies. Moreover, O’Neal had just been taken first in the NBA draft, and Thomas’ noninclusion still remains controversial, owing to pushback from Michael Jordan.

The Dream Team participated in the Olympics held in Barcelona. The team led by Jordan defeated the opponents by an average of 44 points. They defeated Croatia in the final to win the gold medal.